Was the
animal new?
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51 visitors/posters on the
streets of Uppsala, Sweden
FEBRUARY 13 - MARCH 5 2007
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the visitor?
was the animal new?
was the tree new?
was the sound new?
were the lights ever part of another life?
there is a visitor
but one we do not expect,
one we do not invite
one which goes where we wish them not to go
does things which we do not expect
upon arrival this visitor is welcomed
without announcement, with no protocol
without written permission
the visitor intervenes in the city
of course in ways we cannot script,
in ways which have no current form
denying the expectation settled on
just a fraction before it disappears
the visitor?
could be part of nature
inserted ‘back’ into the city
like small islands,
long lost to urban ruin
or lights illuminating crime
before it happens
and like a memory, it asks
without waiting to be asked
what memory now exists?
the visitor?
does the visitor by this action
suggest the future
something appearing,
coming up like a dream
or a nightmare?
would this visitor not
be a work of art
dropped in the city
only to be cleared up
as acupuncture needles
the city it has already lost
like the body
rescued by small gestures
and planted
but only virtually!
the visitor?
an image of the visitor
that really cannot stay
but manages to crash the party
stays longer than invited
puts down roots of a sort
finally disobeying everything around
and just staying put!
only there’s nothing there
but a memory of the forest
from where the visitor began
in another time, another place
yesterday in Kalibukbuk
a small village
in the north of Bali in Indonesia
the visitor?
remembers Dostoesvky:
soon we will be able to invent ourselves
from an idea,
any idea
until then, just visit the idea
plant it in a park, a park
drawn up by a software company near you
hardened in the memory
which has all but forgotten how to dream
how to long for…
what?
can an animal be new?
can a tree be new?
is a car an animal?
and why don´t we ever call an aeroplane a house?
were the lights only ever part of someone else’s life?
ask the visitor before it’s too late.
/Roger Connah
* from the Book of Questions
- r a k t a press 2004-2006
www.raketa.nu/boq/index.html